mattyme

Hi there,

i was wondering what the general consensus is on the pros and cons of sealed cartridge bearings like hope hubs over old favorites like xt's. Is it worth spending the extra for the hope's assuming that they will last longer and be trouble free or is it better to stick to shimano assuming that they are easier to repair or replace should they fail in developing countries.

Ive not had any experience with sealed bearings before so any advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers
matt

njkayaker

What does Sheldon Brown say?

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/

cp43

I have some shimano hubs, and some hope hubs. One of my shimano hubs had the cones come loose, which I was able to easily fix, but was somewhat annoying.

My hope hubs have been fine from the bearings stand point. The downside to the hopes is that they have an aluminum freehub body, which is a problem if you are using a cassette with individual cogs and spacers. The steel cogs will dig into the softer freehub body, and your cassette will get stuck on the freehub body. I had to use a hammer to get mine off. If you use a cassette with groups of cogs, and thus a larger area to distribute the force, you won't have this problem. Or, you can buy a steel freehub body, which I am planning on doing, but haven't gotten to yet.

I like the Hopes for my mountain bike, because the pawls engage more quickly than the shimano ones, but for touring, I would say go with Shimano.

Chris

surreal

all i can say about hubs in general is, if you're shopping for them, check out the *other* site (empty bee yar--you know what i mean) and check out reviews. I was looking at hopes for a mtb build, until i read some credible yet negative reviews over there. Another factor is, finding the older hopes, that aren't disc-brake compat, is harder these days. And, if you're not running discs, you won't want the disc hubs, b/c they'll build a more dished (and, thus, weaker) wheel.

I love Shimano hubs. They're higher maintenance than many, but the maintenance is cheap and easy, and they're dirt cheap, really. Personally, i don't think i'm going to ditch the Shimano hubs for anything other than Phils. I do have some surly sealed bolt-on hubs on my SS 29er, and having the sealed bearings on an affordable hub is nice; i'd condider building up a geared wheelset with a surly front hub in the future. But, usually, you can get the shimano hubs for so cheep, and you can learn to adjust/rebuild them so easily, and replacements are so plentiful, i can't find a compelling reason to abandon them, beyond bling-factor.

-rob

nubcake

to me the ideal touring hub (at least in a price range as the hopes) would be something like the dt 340's. dt has the easiest system to service that i have ever seen. You dont even need 1 tool to service the free hub body. On top of that the star ratchet set up they use is so simple I have never seen one fail.

With that being said alot of people have proven shimano hubs are very reliable when serviced consistently but i have seen and personally have had a number of their free hub bodies fail.

with cost being no issue I would do something like phil wood or chris king hubs. Again I have never seen either of these hubs fail and they are both easy to do basic service on in the field.

nubcake

opps...i killed a kitten

mattyme

thanks a lot for all this advice.

Ive decided to go for the shimanos after all.

Cheers everyone
matt

positron

Having owned both, this is exactly my view.

surreal

haha, great minds, right?

-rob

Ender686

I have a set of Pro IIs on my mountain bike, but haven't put enough miles on them to speak on the durability or anything. But I will say that the pawls in the rear are loud. I was riding downhill on pavement at around 20 mph and it sounded like a small chainsaw was chasing me down the road. I've got XTs on my touring bike and they're nice and quiet.

davidad

The so called cartridge bearings allow the manufacturer to build a cheaper hub. The seals are dust seals and will not do any better job of keeping water out than the ones shimano uses. You can ride them till they dry out, but should remove the seals as often as shimano hubs, clean and relube them.